


I May Never Go Home Anymore

by Ninkasa



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-11-30
Updated: 2009-11-30
Packaged: 2017-10-04 00:55:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 479
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24206
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ninkasa/pseuds/Ninkasa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Doctor stuck on the slow path.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I May Never Go Home Anymore

He had known that it was going to be impossible to get back. There had been no other choice for it and he would not have been able to live with himself if he had allowed the fear of leaving Rose to keep him from rescuing Reinette.

So he permitted himself to fall into the life Reinette helped him form. Retreating to one of her other houses away from the inquiries of the court, which neither of them felt like dealing with. The story that spread was that Madame de Pompadour had a personal physician living with her lead to other stories of a more personal level, which he suspected caused Reinette more problems than she'd had prior.

It hadn't been true. Not at the time, anyway. Much later, because The King was away and she had refused to leave him, it had become true. Not that anyone but the two of them and perhaps a servant knew of it.

He wished there was more he could do for her. It was wearing on her, going back and forth between Versailles and Bellevue, he could see it in the tired way she smiled and responded when he spoke to her. She seemed weary of leaving him to his own devices for too long.

"I can keep myself amused," he told her one evening while she was telling him a story of something that had happened at court. "Yes," she replied, smiling. "But then I would have no one with whom to converse or complain." She kissed him quickly and returned to her story.

He marveled at the way she managed everything with grace and dignity. A lesser woman would have collapsed under the strain. He worried he was shortening her life more than it already was. She tried to hide it when it became hard to breathe or her throat hurt her. She was cold constantly, and he supposed he didn't help, leaving doors open and dragging her outdoors to show her something he had just discovered.

He was always looking for a way to get back, and she watched him do it without any reproach or condemnation. At times he thought she hoped he would find it. Not only for himself and for Rose, but for herself. She knew so much about his world and his life that she knew there were places where she was not going to have to be submissive – not that she really was. And more importantly, there were vaccines and hospitals and better ways of taking care of sick people. She might be able to live past the forty-three years history declared she did.

He tried his best to make due with what he had, being happy and content because if he worried, she would.

He couldn't tell her he might never be able to get them back to when he had come.


End file.
